Day: June 4, 2013

This cane is fairly simple, and very beautiful. [Bill Lewey] made this and was nice enough to document the entire process in detail. There are tons of pictures of the build for you to ogle over, from cutting the rough shape all the way to the finish.

I don’t know if you’d consider this handmade. I don’t know if you’d consider this skilled. I do know you should stop thinking about those things and just watch this stunning video. Molten metal, grungy environments, and hard work are presented here in a fascinating look at how ships are built in Volgograd.

[Chris] found inspiration in an antique flywheel he found. He decided he was going to construct something with it and began rounding up parts. The flywheel, along with some old sewing machine parts becomes a treadle powered lathe.

There’s something so very cathartic about seeing all the wood chiseled and sawed away. That pile of sawdust just means you’re getting things done!

Meet [Ray Gascoigne]. He’s a ship builder. Well, he builds ships in bottles. He’s been doing it for years and years and years and you can see it in his hands. The details are fantastic on the ships, but I really love hearing about the tools. He talks about how much things have changed over the years from having to build your own specialized tiny drill bits from broken needles to being able to just walk right down to the store and buy some.

The part that I found most interesting is this video, as amazingly beautiful as it is, never shows the insertion and erection of a full ship.

[Sebastian Schuster’s] weekend project was to turn his GoPro camera into a panning time-lapse rig. You’ll notice it’s in a waterproof case as his demo for the hack was an outdoor session and the weather’s not the best right now. He put this together quickly, easily, and on-the-cheap thanks to the Ikea egg timer and a 3D printed camera mount.

An egg timer is a popular choice for panning hacks. Any type that includes a dial that spins on the horizontal axis will do. The Ikea Stam egg timer has that raised handle which is easily gripped by the 3D printed part. You can get a hold of the design files through a web service which is new to us. [Sebastian] used Tinkercad for the design, and shared it in his project post linked above.

Brass, beaten and molded can be a thing of beauty. Watch as this craftsman puts together a very nice looking tuba. The tools of the trade in this case are somewhat automated, with that mechanical hammer, but it looks like much of this is still done by hand.

If you are using live plants in your aquarium you must remember to fertilize them at regular intervals. Being a bit forgetful, [Deven] automated the process by building this auto-doser.

There are three different chemicals which are dispensed by the system. They are stored in the drink bottles seen above. Each has a plastic tube which runs up to the dosing motors mounted on the black box. [Deven] sourced the motors from eBay. They are designed for this type of application.

Inside the black box is the Arduino that handles timing and switches the motors. The control circuitry is protected using one MOSFET for each. To keep the fish safe the outflow is directed right into the aquarium pump so that the concentrated chemicals are quickly dispersed through the entire tank.